President Barack Obama told House Democrats on Wednesday that he would negotiate with Republicans but “not with a gun at my head,” according to one lawmaker who attended a caucus-wide meeting at the White House.

As he has before, Obama said he was open to short-term agreements to open the government and raise the debt ceiling if that’s what it took to help Republicans out of what he described as a political box, the lawmaker said.

Democrats hold shutdown rally

'Let's stop the excuses'

“All we want is a short-term CR because we think the number is unacceptable,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said, using shorthand for a continuing resolution that would fund the government for as little as a few weeks at current levels.

“We’re not going to vote against America paying its bills,” said Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who stood beside Pelosi outside the West Wing of the White House.

Republicans, too, were busy Wednesday mapping out plans to end the crisis, with 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin outlining a proposal for GOP colleagues in which they would agree to raise the debt limit and open the government for a short window with a spending-cut package riding alongside those deals.

So as the government shutdown’s ninth day came to a close — and even as standoff-style stagecraft dominated the House and Senate floors Wednesday — there were early signs on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue that the political class is ready to begin the process of bargaining.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his No. 2, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, sat down with Pelosi and Hoyer in the speaker’s office Wednesday.

Boehner spoke twice with Obama on Tuesday, although the Ohio Republican’s aides say they aren’t negotiating at the moment.

Indeed, there’s been no movement among leaders to reopen government after eight days, or lift the debt ceiling, which Treasury says must happen by Oct. 17. And GOP leaders were skeptical ahead of the meeting with Obama.

“A meeting is a good start, but only if it means [Obama has] decided to drop his refusal to negotiate on solutions — only if he’s ready to work with members of both parties to address the debt in a meaningful way,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Obama was “disappointed” that Boehner is “preventing his members from coming to the White House.”

“The president thought it was important to talk directly with the members who forced this economic crisis on the country about how the shutdown and a failure to pay the country’s bills could devastate the economy,” Carney said. “If the Republicans want to have a real discussion, they should open the government and take the threat of default off the table.”

Nonetheless, some possible solutions are beginning to sprout up.

Ryan, whom many consider the intellectual leader of the House Republicans, spoke in the basement of the Capitol at a Republican Study Committee meeting and urged short-term debt ceiling hikes with spending cuts that would ride alongside. He thinks he could reform some of America’s entitlement programs and begin fixing the Tax Code in one or two months. Republican leadership is not opposed to this idea, but they need concessions alongside any short-term hike.